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The latest monthly report from the Toronto Real Estate Board President (TREB) is showing that a steady demand remains for homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). During the month of November, a total of 7,374 home slaes were recorded. While this number—exceeding seasonal expectations—represents an increase over the previous month's sales of 7,118 sales, it is still a 13.3% year-over-year decline from the 8,547 home sales recorded during November 2016.
TREB President Tim Syrianos attributes the month-over-month surge in sales at least partially to factors like recent and upcoming legislation. “We have seen an uptick in demand for ownership housing in the GTA this fall, over and above the regular seasonal trend," reads a prepared statement by Syrianos. "Similar to the Greater Vancouver experience, the impact of the Ontario Fair Housing Plan and particularly the foreign buyer tax may be starting to wane. On top of this, it is also possible that the upcoming changes to mortgage lending guidelines, which come into effect in January, have prompted some households to speed up their home buying decision,” Syrianos continued.
New listings surged in November, climbing an impressive 37.2% year-over-year with 14,349 new listings. It is worth noting that the 10,518 new listings recorded last November was relatively low when measured against previous years. Despite the somewhat anomalous year-over-year increase, the figure is a drop from the 14,903 new listings recorded the month prior, in October 2017.
MLS' Home Price Index composite benchmark price increased by 8.4% year-over-year, though average selling prices for all combined home types decreased by 2% during the same window. This decline is being attributed to a decline in detached home sales from last year. In contrast, the average selling price increased by 13.4% over last year's numbers when measured year-to-date.
TREB’s Director of Market Analysis, Jason Mercer, states that a consumer poll undertaken by Ipsos in the spring is reinforcing that a seller's market currently exists in several neighbourhoods, continuing to say that "We will have more insights to share about consumer intentions for 2018 at the end of January when TREB releases its third annual Market Year in Review and Outlook report.”
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